2015 Paragliding World Cup - Bir Billing, India — Task 5

Torsten Siegel reflects on an epic final day at the World Cup in India.

What a day! The haze of the previous day had cleared and once again, we enjoyed breakfast on the terrace before we went as usual at 8:30 to the launch. There Pepe had already figured out a task that turned out to offer everything that a competition pilot could wish for. After a rather weak start, we climbed out painfully to 3600m to join the waiting gaggle. And then the game began. After a few different tactical ploys, all the top 10 pilots found themselves in an extremely fast race along the ridge. Suddenly the pace slowed as shade covered the ground. Just as we were about to sink out, the sun came out and at 50m above the ground, we found a low-save thermal. Then, with the last turnpoint in the bag, there was a full-speed final approach before we were cheered wildly by thousands of spectators. The icing on the cake was the overall victory for Michael Küffer and for the GIN team of Aaron Durogati, Idris Birch, Petra Slivova and Torsten Siegel.

The competition calendar continues in January with the World Cup Super Final in Mexico—see you there!